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Book of the Year Click Title to Buy

Douglas Murray: The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, IslamBy far the most compelling political book of the year was Douglas Murray's The Strange Death of Europe ... fearless, truth-telling, and masterfully organised ... Don't hold an opinion about this book if you have not read it. * Evening Standard, Books of the Year 2017 * This is a brilliant, important and profoundly depressing book. That it is written with Douglas Murray's usual literary elegance and waspish humour does not make it any less depressing. That Murray will be vilified for it by the liberals who have created the appalling mess he describes does not make it any less brilliant and important ... Read it. * Rod Liddle, Sunday Times * His overall thesis, that a guilt-driven and exhausted Europe is playing fast and loose with its precious modern values by embracing migration on such a scale, is hard to refute. * Juliet Samuel, Telegraph * Every so often, something is published which slices through the fog of confusion, obfuscation and the sheer dishonesty of public debate to illuminate one key fact about the world. Such a work is Douglas Murray's tremendous and shattering book, The Strange Death of Europe. * Melanie Phillips, The Times * Breathtakingly gripping * Michael Gove, Standpoint

"No Labels" Indeed

“‘In America we have a two-party system,’ a Republican congressional staffer is supposed to have told a visiting group of Russian legislators some years ago. ‘There is the stupid party. And there is the evil party. I am proud to be a member of the stupid party.’ He added: ‘Periodically, the two parties get together and do something that is both stupid and evil. This is called — bipartisanship.’” – Peter Brimelow

One Hundred Million Dead

"The West accepts an epochal, monstrous, unforgivable double standard. We rehearse the crimes of Nazism almost daily; we teach them to our children as ultimate historical and moral lessons; and we bear witness to every victim. We are, with so few exceptions, almost silent on the crimes of Communism. So the bodies lie among us, unnoticed, everywhere." -- Alan Charles Kors, Professor of History, University of Pennsylvania

Che-Worship

"The latest manifestation of Che-worship is a film by Steven Soderbergh called, simply, Che. It was screened in Havana, of course, under the approving gaze of the Communist dictatorship. The actor playing Guevara, Benicio Del Toro, was there, partying with party members -- Cuban officials. It must have been very cozy. And who was Che Guevara, the real one? He was Castro's number-one thug, presiding over summary executions at La Cabana. That was the fortress that served as his abattoir. He would administer the coup de grace -- a bullet in the back of the neck -- while his victims cried, 'Vivo Cristo Rey!' or 'Viva Cuba libre!' He liked to show off El Paredon, the killing wall turned red with blood. Furthermore, he established the labor-camp system in the which countless citizens -- dissidents, democrats, artists, homosexuals -- would suffer and die. This is the Cuban gulag. Anthony Daniels once remarked that the difference between Guevara and Pol Pot is that Guevara never studied in Paris." -- National Review, December 29, 2008, p. 12.

Progressive "Chic"

"Speaking of Lenin and Hitler, here is a story -- originating with Kingsley Amis and told recently by Charles Moore, the British journalist. Amis 'knew a man who was an interior decorator. One day, the man was commissioned to improve the house of a rich, left-wing woman in Hampstead. Above the main staircase was a huge portrait of Lenin. Kingsley's friend decided on a tease: "Who's that?" he asked . ... "Hang on, don't tell me, don't tell me. ... I know: Hitler!"'" -- Jay Nordlinger, "Undies, Comrade?" National Review, July 6, 2009, p. 25.

The More Laws The Better

Still today this January 7, 2001, Letter to the Editor of the Los Angeles Times from a woman in West Hollywood remains a classic of the liberal mindset:
"SPONSORING NEW LAWS:
Re your Jan. 1 article on some of the state's most important 2001 laws: By my count of the 81 new laws, two were bipartisan, 70 were sponsored by Democrats and nine by Republicans. No wonder Republicans can cry 'too much government' -- they just don't bother to do a thing."

Our Next President

At the CNN-hosted "debate" held today, June 3, 2007, in New Hampshire, Wolf Blitzer asked the Democratic Presidential candidates whether "English should be the official language of the United States." All but Mike Gravel answered No. Barack Obama objected that "this is the kind of question that is designed precisely to divide us." Hillary Clinton responded with concern that "if it becomes official, that means in a place like New York City you can't print ballots in any other language." Pray for the nation.

El Presidente de los Estados Unidos

"I don't understand when people are going around worrying about, 'We need to have English only.' They want to pass a law, 'We want just, uh, we want English only.' Now, I agree that immigrants should learn English. I agree with that. But, but, understand this. Instead of worrying about whether, uh, immigrants can learn English -- they'll learn English -- you need to make sure your child can speak Spanish."
-- Senator Barack Obama, July 8, 2008

Blaming Whitey

THE FOUNDRY blog at Heritage.org, April 3, 2009:
BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, MARCH 27, 2009: "This is a crisis that was caused by white people with blue eyes. And before the crisis, they looked as if they knew everything about economics." ASSOCIATED PRESS, APRIL 2, 2009: During a lunch at the Group of 20 summit in London, Obama shook hands with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and said: “This is my man, right here. I love this guy."

The Benefit in Demeaning America

Paul Mirengoff at PowerLineBlog.com, April 5, 2009, considers various reasons why President Obama seems so compelled to criticize his own country. He concludes with a final possibility:
"Obama's America bashing is the product of his ego. Scott [Johnson] suggested as much yesterday when he described Obama as 'bestriding the Western world in the guise of a philosopher king.' By distancing himself from America's foreign policy, he presents himself as something greater than a mere American president attempting to project American power and American ideas. Any president can do that. So grand is this American president that he will project his own special synthesis of world ideas, at least rhetorically. In doing so, not coincidentally, he will impress elites at home and abroad, and enhance his personal popularity, if not that of the country. His intellect will be admired and he will become a beloved figure throughout the world."

Bruce Bawer: Surrender: Appeasing Islam, Sacrificing Freedom"Pim Fortuyn's life and death testified to a grim reality: speak the truth about Islam in the Western world today and you're a marked man. And those who paint the target on your back will be the cultural elite -- the politicians, the professors, and above all the media." p. 37

Irene Zarina White: Fire Burn: World War II Diaries"July 16, 1940. The big day! The workers of Varonis including the office and professional staff were marched in groups of twenty or so to the polls. Near the entrance, the ballots were distributed. I looked at my ballot: it was a single piece of paper folded once, containing the names of candidates of List #1. There was no other list. No marking was required to make the ballot valid. We were ordered to move along a counter on which stood the ballot box. Behind the counter were several members of the Communist Party who watched us closely, as we slipped our ballots into the box. Then one of the Communists stamped our passports to indicate that we had obeyed Moscow's orders and could no longer be considered 'enemies of the people.'" p. 61

Jane Cunningham: The Rings of My Tree: A Latvian Woman's Journey"Memory is a place of comfort or agitation and I can only think that in the first truly cataclysmic terror of my then twenty-four year old life, God put me on what you now call automatic pilot. German soldiers arrived at the post office as Russian planes dropping bombs could be heard just off in the distance. Annie and I grabbed our suitcases and ran outside. The planes came so fast there were no sirens, but there was a smoke-blackened sky to the east of us and a swelling, staccato-like noise filling the air. We started to run home which was a natural instinct, but someone in the crowd outside the train station across the street yelled to us and said, 'Hurry, this is the last train to Liepaja. Hurry.' We ran like the wind through the small marketplace, across the tracks and climbed aboard. I have no memory of my feet touching the ground, or jumping the tracks, no feeling of fear -- just sheer survival reaction with a God-given painkiller all over my body sealing in my homeland forever. My heart had to have been pounding, but I cannot remember feeling it." p. 24.

The Book They Want to Keep You From Reading

Stanley Kurtz: Radical-in-Chief: Barack Obama and the Untold Story of American Socialism"Kurtz makes an in-depth exploration of the president’s connections to radical groups such as ACORN, UNO of Chicago, the Midwest Academy, and the Socialist Scholars Conferences. He explains what modern 'stealth' socialism is, how it has changed, and how it continues to influence the Democratic Party. He sheds light on what the New York Times called a 'lost chapter' of the president’s life—his years at Columbia—and proves that Obama’s youthful infatuation with socialism was not just a phase. Those ideas have shaped his political views and set the groundwork for the long-term strategy of his administration."

Thought for the Day

"I have a million ideas. The country can't afford them all."
Senator Hillary Clinton,
October 10, 2007